The House of The Vampire by George Sylvester Viereck Chapter 10 Page 6

“Come now,” Jack could not help saying, “is your memory giving way? Don’t you remember your own days in college — especially the mathematical examinations? You know that your marks came always pretty near the absolute zero.”

“Jack,” cried Ernest in honest indignation, “not the last time. The last time I didn’t flunk.”

“No, because your sonnet on Cartesian geometry roused even the math-fiend to compassion. And don’t you remember Professor Squeeler, whose heart seemed to leap with delight whenever he could tell you that, in spite of incessant toil on your part, he had again flunked you in physics with fifty-nine and a half per cent.?”

“And he wouldn’t raise the mark to sixty! God forgive him, —